PANews reported on September 8th that, according to a report in the Hong Kong Economic Journal, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority will only issue a few stablecoin licenses in the first phase. As of the end of August, 77 institutions had expressed interest in applying for licenses. ICBC (Asia) reportedly has applied to the HKMA, becoming the second major Chinese bank to do so after Bank of China (Hong Kong). HSBC has also expressed interest, and Standard Chartered and Bank of China (Hong Kong) are likely to receive the first batch of licenses.